What is a bulb?
Bulbs provide energy for plants to grow, bloom and complete their life cycles each year.
Hardy bulbs like tulips, iris, crocus, lilies and daffodils are planted in the fall since they require a long nap during the winter months. These bulbs will begin to develop when the ground starts warming up, popping up and blooming through spring and early summer.
Tender bulbs like begonias and dahlias should be planted when the ground warms up in the spring since they cannot survive the cold temperatures and don’t require a period of dormancy. These types of bulbs will begin to flower during the summer.
Brooklyn is in hardiness zone 7b (more on that here), so we get to work planting hardy bulbs as early as October in preparation for the ground freezing. Planting them in the fall ensures the bulb will have time to develop roots before the ground freezes and time stops for them.
Once the danger of frost has passed in the spring (usually in mid-April), we can get to work on planting any tender bulbs.
In the above image, David is holding a bag of Daffodil bulbs. He looks dead inside because this is the season he planted 10,000 bulbs around Brooklyn by himself. Now he has an extra set of hands and a longer beard.
Tulipa humilis
A bulb explosion.
Shogun Tulip
Tulipa ‘Greuze’
Lilium 'Golden Splendor'
Our resident mascot, Inkie, basking in the sunshine with Narcissus 'King Alfred'
Tulipa Bleu Aimable
David in his natural habitat -- an entire front-yard popping with tulips.
Narcissus 'Orange Progress'
Tulipa - Algarve
Tulipa tubergeniana
Brooklyn tree pit filled with varieties of tulips and daffodils
Lilium 'Monte Negro'
Tulipa 'Beauty Queen'
Tulipa ‘Spring Green’
Muscari armeniacum